I rant. I brag. I praise. I say things just to tick people off.
So be prepared to be offended and/or outraged from time to time, but know also that there's only an 80% chance that I meant to be offensive and/or outrageous.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

In this first video--captured by cell phone, so I apologize for the resolution--you see Mark's big run in today's game.

The second video is less impressive, but more amusing. Mark wants to play ice hockey, so we have him in skating lessons. This past Thursday was a "Free Skate," so he and all of the students were able just to skate around. I was reading a Harry Turtledove novel, but I looked up at one point to see how Mark was doing. I thought that he was convulsing or something, but then I realized that he was dancing. To add to my horror, he was dancing to a High School Musical Song.

After the "Free Skate," I asked him why he was dancing. He said, "Duh, it's an awesome song!"

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Note to President Obama: When friendly--darn near worshipping--networks like CBS turn on you, then you know that you've crossed into dark, dark waters.

Still, the Obama administration's attempt to exclude FoxNews from interviews and such is not anywhere near the worst Presidential assault on the media.

In the late 1790s, Alexander Hamilton's Federalist Party drafted the Sedition Act, and John Adams signed it into law. The Sedition Act gave the executive powers to prosecute anyone who dared to "write, print, utter, or publish" criticisms of the President (Adams was a Federalist) or Congress (controlled by Federalists). The law allowed for punishments of fines up to $2000 and two years imprisonment.

The Federalists intended the Sedition Act to silence the growing opposition of Thomas Jefferson's opposition party. Instead, it made a lot of people take a long, hard look at the Federalists. Jefferson's party accused Federalists of being tyrannical and monarchical in disposition. The Sedition Act all but proved this.

During the Civil War, the Lincoln Administration had many critical newspapers shut down, presses destroyed, and and newspapermen imprisoned. Of course, that's nothing compared to what he did to those who would decline consent to his government.

No abuse of power that Obama has thus far committed is without precedent. It is kind of funny that while the administration has been ignoring the Constitution right and left, it's not until it crossed the freedom of the press that the big media outlets (excepting FoxNews, of course) cried foul.

Dude, you like the Twilight Zone? Then you gotta see A Charlie Brown Christmas!

By the way, I just checked Amazon for a product description of The Twilight Zone Vol. 16:

Product DescriptionEpisodes: "And When the Sky Was Opened" (Ep. 11, December 11, 1959) - Col. Clegg Forbes (Rod Taylor) and two fellow astronauts have returned from their first space flight. They soon discover that no one remembers them--as if they never existed. "In His Image" (Ep. 103, January 3, 1963, 50 min.) - Alan Talbot doesn't understand why his hometown seems so unfamiliar; why is he driven to kill and what are those strange noises in his head? He's about to get some answers when he comes face to face with his double. "The Last Night of a Jockey" (Ep. 125, October 25, 1963) - Mickey Rooney is Grady, a former jockey, banned from horse racing and down on his luck. When he gets one wish, he grows to over eight-feet tall--which, he'll find out, can be too big.

Friday, October 23, 2009

Why aren't more people bothered by the number of so-called "Czars" in the executive branch? There's a "Pay Czar," for God's sake.

"Czar" from the Russian "Tsar" from the Roman "Caesar." A word that is incompatible with constitutional government. It goes to show how worthless our Constitution has become--"An old bitch gone in the teeth." to borrow from Ezra Pound's imagery in "Hugh Selwyn Mauberly."

American Czars? Pay Czars? The federal government gets to decide how much people should be paid? Will this decision supposedly be based upon job performance? If so, then the salaries of most federal employees--including and especially congress and the president--should be slashed.

Still think that the "crazies" who stockpile weapons for the ultimate defense of their liberties are simply nutjobs? Maybe they have no chance against the might of the federal government, but that doesn't mean that they're wrong about the nature of this leviathan. Do you not see the terrible direction that these trends are taking us?

The wife and I were just settled down to watch yesterday's episode of House, only to find that 3/4 of the episode was preempted by the damn baseball game. Since the DVR can't understand anything but time slots, we missed most of the episode.

The Iranian government says that the United States and British governments share responsibility for a deadly terrorist attack on Iranian interests.

The United States and British governments deny the Iranian government's claim, and have linked the Iranian government to deadly terrorist attacks on United States and British interests.

I'll bet that both accusations are correct, for governments take to terror and destruction the way that one inappropriate thing takes to something very inappropriate in an inappropriate (and far less vague) comparison.